We bring you all the latest news and discoveries relating to human origins and evolution. The more fossils that are unearthed, the more researchers admit that there is much that is still unknown about the evolution of humans.
University of Massachusetts A study from an international team of researchers including UMass Amherst biologist John Rowan shows introduced species (e.g. hippos in Colombia) can restore a lost world...
By John Long & Richard Cloutier / The Conversation One of the most significant events in the history of life was when fish evolved into tetrapods , crawling out of the water and eventually...
Amélie Beaudet / The Conversation In his book Wonderful Life , Professor Stephen Jay Gould – an evolutionary biologist, paleontologist and widely-read popular science author – described the evolution...
Scientists have proven that tooth enamel developed much quicker in ‘other’ hominids groups. Fossilized bones and teeth tell scientists when organisms lived, and morphological differences provide...
By Lars Schmitz & Jingmai Kathleen O'Connor / The Conversation In 2016, our colleague Xing Lida held up a small piece of polished, deeply yellow amber. As sunlight shone through the ancient resin...
Even a million and a half years ago, our ancestors understood that sometimes you need a simple hammerstone and other times a finely-made hand axe would better suit the task in front of you. New...
Humans began developing a complex culture as early as the Stone Age . This development was brought about by social interactions between various groups of hunters and gatherers, a UZH study has now...
Scientists have proven the arch running across the top of the human foot evolved in a 3.5-million-year old human ancestor, enabling us to walk and run upright unlike all other primates. Sports...
Do you remember those school science posters that depicted human evolution with a primate standing up and becoming a modern human? Of course you do, but you may not have noticed that these posters...
Researchers investigating the date of human settlement in Australia have made an amazing discovery. They analyzed geological data in relation to the oral tradition of local Aboriginal people, and it...
When the first Neanderthal genome was sequenced, using DNA collected from ancient bones, it was accompanied by the discovery that modern humans in Asia, Europe and America inherited approximately 2%...
Scientists are claiming current theories “over-simplify” how the Americas were populated. Many of us were once taught that the Americas were void of humans until around 13,000 years ago. Authors like...
An ancient set of footprints commonly known as the ‘ devil footprints ’ on the side of an extinct volcano have long frightened and intrigued people in southern Italy . In reality, it was thought that...
Kseniya Kolobova et al / The Conversation Neanderthal ( Homo neanderthalensis ) fossils were first discovered in western Europe in the mid nineteenth century. That was just the first in a long line...
Saint Louis University Africa is the homeland of our species and harbors greater human genetic diversity than any other part of the planet. Studies of ancient DNA from African archaeological sites...
Almost half a billion years ago Earth was largely inhabited by armored arthropods with segmented bodies and jointed limbs, shelled mollusks, and wobbly unrecognizable fishlike organisms darting about...
Neanderthals are known to have used tools, but the extent to which they were able to exploit coastal resources has been questioned. New research shows they collected clam shells and volcanic rock...
Many societies celebrate the changing of the seasons and harvest time. One of the most elaborate festivals in India is the Lohri, better known as the Pongal. This is a four-day Hindu festival that...
Kristen S. Morrow / The Conversation Human beings used to be defined as “the tool-maker” species. But the uniqueness of this description was challenged in the 1960s when Dr. Jane Goodall discovered...
Nick Longrich / The Conversation Why did we take so long to invent civilization? Modern Homo sapiens first evolved roughly 250,000 to 350,000 years ago. But initial steps towards civilization –...
The scientific cultivation of lost ancient seed crops has yielded much higher than expected growth rates, challenging assumptions about maize (corn) growth in prehistoric North America . According to...
The evolution and spread of Homo sapiens is perhaps one of the greatest mysteries in all of science. Until recently, it was believed that the origins of the species and the ancestors of every person...
Ancient Indian ghee butter has been turned into gold by a Brazilian entrepreneur. Raquel Tavares, who lives in Los Angeles, California , founded the company Fourth & Heart with her life savings...
New research focused on the roasted remnants of rootstalks found in a Lebombo Mountain cave in South Africa suggests early humans brought the plants to the cave to feed to their young and old. A new...